As anyone who has anything to do with operating forums or other public comment sites knows, battling spam is a major issue, and a headache for those tasked with keeping it at bay.

As our forum has always maintained much of an inclusionist rather than an exclusionist approach to members, we've accumulated a large membership of folk (and bots) who never post anything, many of which are actually automated memberships designed to drive traffic to other sites via links in their profile or signature.

I have increased the difficulty required to register, now instigating a series of questions one of which is presented to each new registrant which they must answer correctly to sign up. This is to limit the number of bot sign-ups, which get around the CAPCHA far too easily.

IN ADDITION TO THIS MEASURE, I PLAN TO PRUNE FROM OUR MEMBERSHIP ALL THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER LOGGED IN, AND THOSE WHO HAVE ZERO POSTS.

I realize that there are a number of bona-fide members who never make a post, however it is counter-productive to allow this practice to continue. As anyone can read the forum, there is no advantage in having a membership and never making a post.

Should bona-fide members be caught up in this pruning process (which they undoubtedly will) I offer my apologies, but also suggest you take out a new membership only if you intend to use it to post in the future, and that you post at least once or twice in order to show you are a bona-fide interested party and be excused from any future zero-post pruning.

THIS PROCESS IS BOUND TO REMOVE SOME OF THE RECENTLY CREATED BONA-FIDE ACCOUNTS for which I apologize, but there is no other way to achieve the desired result without massive amounts of leg-work for which we don't have the time or personnel to conduct. Once done, if your membership has disappeared, simply re-apply, and then make a post or two as noted above, to avoid future pruning sessions.

I hope and trust that bona-fide parties will understand and support this measure, and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

sorry, unrelated, but could not figure out where to post a problem i have with "Electric Universe - Resources" forum...

why are posts not listed with last post on top? descending.

thanks...

"It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.""Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one.""Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire

sorry, unrelated, but could not figure out where to post a problem i have with "Electric Universe - Resources" forum...

why are posts not listed with last post on top? descending.

Are you referring to the top six topics on the Resources forum? These posts have a permanent position on the board as "stickys." That is they are always at the top of the forum. They are of importance (as a "resource") and need to be permanently highlighted so that new members can be referred to this important EU background material. Otherwise, as new topics are created these older topics would be pushed down the board and obscured and forgotten on the back pages.

I was one of the very real humans that recently was pruned. I follow the Thunderbolts site almost daily and although I do not visit the forums nearly as often, I do find them very helpful. The search feature is not available unless you are logged on. Being able to search for an item makes the forum much more useful.

Thanks for the note Dennis, I had not realized about the search function...

BTW there is a much better (IMO) search function on the main site, from where you can search 'forum only' posts if you wish. The forum generic search is a bit clumsy to set up, and misses some of the important stuff, whereas the one on the site sidebar uses the Scroogle Scraper to do a Google search whilst maintaining user anonymity.

Anyway, now I know there IS at least some advantage to having membership and not posting. That's one of the reasons I made the announcement, as I thought we'd invariably catch some 'real people' in the sweep-up. Even with the new measures, we STILL get spam sign-ups. People with nothing better to do...

I'm also an inactive user, who is reading the posts of the other members almost on daily basis, and I find almost all your topics very interesting, and your thoughs and the style of your debates very clever, and intelligent. I learn a lot... Sometimes I would be very glad, if I could write properly what I think, or ask your opinion about some questions or things, but I know, that my english is so awful, that better not to write anything. So,please, excuse me, if I'm only a listener. I write this, beacuse I think, I'm not the only member with this native language problem. as your forum is more and more international, which is a your goal anyway!Thanks...

Welcome aboard danikutya, and thanks for your kind words. I am sorry if you were one of the real persons culled during my (over?)-enthusiastic anti-spam spree. I'll try to avoid such drastic action in future. Hopefully, with our new measures in place, it may not be necessary in future to be so "cut-throat" in my approach.

Please don't be shy about posting simply because of a language issue. We have many members whose first language is not English, and whilst at times it may cause a little bump in the road, our members are generally very understanding and inclusionist on the whole. Having said that, feel free to lurk and listen only if you wish. My intent is not to force anyone to post on the forum who would not be comfortable doing so.

"Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality"Nikola Tesla, Modern Mechanics and Inventions, July, 1934.Fast forward 74Yrs->yawn!

I believe that most readers of and contributors to this forum are interested in a civilized and intelligent discussion.However, I also believe that many of us become discouraged from participating by the unrestrained bullying taking place on this forum.Some bullying probably happens accidentally as a result of some contributors personal frustrations or burning devotion to their own view of the world. However, there is also a clearly abusive tone delivered repeatedly by a small number of participants.I believe that a scientific forum like the Thunderbolts deserves the right to establish and enforce a strict set of rules.I do not see how this in any way could hurt the scientific content of this forum.I believe it would allow more participants to contribute interesting thoughts without the fear of ridicule or bullying.I could suggest a set of rules and consequences. However, I believe that your moderators already have a pretty good idea of what could be done to elevate the Thunderbolts Forum above the mindless street fighting presently taking place on this forum.

It is a shame that this forum and the topic does not get a whole lot of attention.I have two books on the topic and told a few people about this forum.But not much of a reaction.

There have been many discussion about the sun in various places on the net.But mostly about solar effect on the climate.But it is interesting that little by little they realize that this current solar activity is exposing their lack of understanding on what the sun is doing.